students protest a rather scary piece of proposed legislation. i especially found this bit frightening:

Under the proposed revisions, those who reproduce, sell or rent pirated products will face a maximum prison sentence of five years and a hefty fine up to NT$8 million.

For example, people who copy CDs for friends, or purchase books from abroad for friends, or students who save information downloaded from the Internet on the their computers, will be prosecuted even if no complaint or lawsuit is filed, the group said, adding that the new law would only serve to "incriminate everybody in the country."

hopefully the legislation will die or not be introduced at all, but considering how the government here likes to bend over to please washington i'm not holding out much hope. whether it will be enforceable at all is another thing. i've been told by quite a few of my students if you can't copy it, it won't be popular in taiwan. and when experts often can't be certain something is fake how can the general public be expected to know? well, if i suddenly stop blogging you can assume i've been arrested for breaking part(or most) of this proposed law.